The report suggests that smart coatings have reached a stage of technological maturity where they can replace traditional anti-corrosion, anti-icing, anti-fouling, and other industrial protective coatings. These smart protective coatings will reach approximately $2 billion in sales by 2021, based on their ability reduce downtime and maintenance costs for vehicles, marine vessels, buildings and large pieces of industrial machinery

The research also sees a new opportunity opening up for smart coatings in the consumer sector, where sales of these coatings to consumer electronics, furniture, textiles, etc., will be worth around $1 billion by 2021. Low-end self-cleaning and self-healing sprays have been available to the consumer market for many years. But durable smart consumer coatings are now reaching price points that will make them attractive to high-income consumer markets with strong use cases that can compete with anti-scratch coatings and other polishes.

Despite these advances, it is believed that commercialization of some of the manufacturing and formulation of smart coatings still have a way to go, especially in terms of scalability. Some inherently smart manufacturing technologies such as self-assembly, layer-by-layer have high potential for creating smart coatings, but the details are still being worked out.

In addition, the research sees the smart coatings business finding new commercial directions through the use of the latest nanomaterials and notes that developing smart coatings has become one focus for firms developing applications for carbon nanotubes and graphene.

The report includes a section on the markets for smart coatings in construction. Topics of interest specific to the construction industry include green building/LEED design, energy efficiency, exterior building paints/coatings, self-healing buildings, and self-cleaning coatings for window glass and interior walls/floors. Electrochromic coatings and alternatives for smart windows as well as smart antimicrobials are among some of the subjects discussed in this section.